A microfluidic device to study cancer metastasis under chronic and intermittent hypoxia

Metastatic cancer cells must traverse a microenvironment ranging from extremely hypoxic, within the tumor, to highly oxygenated, within the host''s vasculature. Tumor hypoxia can be further characterized by regions of both chronic and intermittent hypoxia. We present the design and characterization of a microfluidic device that can simultaneously mimic the oxygenation conditions observed within the tumor and model the cell migration and intravasation processes. This device can generate spatial oxygen gradients of chronic hypoxia and produce dynamically changing hypoxic microenvironments in long-term culture of cancer cells.     

Towards an econophysics view of intellectual capital dynamics: from self-organized criticality to the stochastic frontier

The paper begins with research studying the concept and nature of Intellectual Capital (IC), as well as how close IC firms are to the stochastic frontier. Then basic concepts of complexity theory – such as agents, self-organized criticality (SOC), connectivities, fractals, and power laws (PLs) – are used to distinguish between two kinds of IC firms’ success: traditional SOC applications to how firms maintain their position in a changing industry vs. how an IC firm (such as Apple) creates a new stochastic frontier. The research sets up PLs as indicators of whether or not firms and industries are SOC-effective and includes propositions about: (1) How IC firms benefit from complexity dynamics and SOC; (2) How PL distributions are indicators of efficacious SOC and adaptivity; and (3) Why IC attributes serve to create more transient dynamics pertaining to the stochastic frontier and the rest of the industry's rank/frequency distribution.     

Do R&D subsidies affect SMEs’ access to external financing?

Many countries spend sizeable sums of public money on R&D grants to alleviate debt and equity gaps for small firms’ innovation projects. In making such awards, knowledgeable government officials may certify firms to private financiers. Using a unique Belgian dataset of 1107 approved requests and a control group of denied requests for a specific type of R&D grant, we examine the impact of subsidies on small firms’ access to external equity, short term and long term debt financing. We find that obtaining an R&D subsidy provides a positive signal about SME quality and results in better access to long-term debt.     

Collaborating for Success: The Digital Library of the Caribbean

This article will provide a brief overview of the successes of the Digital Library of the Caribbean, an open access, multi-institutional, multilingual, inclusive, international digital library. It will discuss factors that support the sustainability of robust technical infrastructures, collaborative partnerships, shared governance, and shared interests in advancing Caribbean scholarly research. Partner relationships and shared governance are at the heart of the creativity and solutions which continue to grow the largest Caribbean content digital library in the world.     

The Co-residence of Elderly People with Their Children and Grandchildren

As a result of the increase in life expectancy in Western societies, the need for elderly people to live with their families (coresidence) is on the rise. The main objectives of this study were to determine the social perception of the advantages and drawbacks of coresidence with elderly people and establish the differences in this perception amongst the coresiding generations. A 20-item scale (Likert-type) was developed to determine beliefs on coresidence. A total of 414 subjects from three generations (207 young people, 146 adults and 61 elderly people) from 207 different families took part in the study. Results: the factorial analysis of the scale entitled “assessment conflict in coresidence with elderly people” (ACE) shows five factors that, together, account for 47.5% of the total variance. The results indicate that there are both positive and negative beliefs, although negative beliefs are the most prevalent. The most prominent positive belief was that the grandparents help to look after their grandchildren. Problems derived from living together and the lack of space were among the negative beliefs. The perception of coresidence with elderly people varied among the generations, and two different patterns were observed regarding the degree of agreement with the statements. In one pattern, the level of agreement gradually increased from the grandchildren generation to the grandparent generation. In the other in two generations, it was similar, and in the third it was different. In general, the parent generation (adults) had the most negative perception of coresidence with elderly people.     

Hierarchical Text Categorization Using Neural Networks

This paper presents the design and evaluation of a text categorization method based on the Hierarchical Mixture of Experts model. This model uses a divide and conquer principle to define smaller categorization problems based on a predefined hierarchical structure. The final classifier is a hierarchical array of neural networks. The method is evaluated using the UMLS Metathesaurus as the underlying hierarchical structure, and the OHSUMED test set of MEDLINE records. Comparisons with an optimized version of the traditional Rocchio's algorithm adapted for text categorization, as well as flat neural network classifiers are provided. The results show that the use of the hierarchical structure improves text categorization performance with respect to an equivalent flat model. The optimized Rocchio algorithm achieves a performance comparable with that of the hierarchical neural networks.     

Impact case studies: what accounts for the need for numbers in impact evaluation?

ABSTRACT

The UK Research Excellence Framework (REF) introduced impact as an indicator in the evaluation of higher education research quality in 2014. Impact case studies (ICS) are the basis of this evaluation. ICS use narrative explanations of how research causes ‘benefits to society’. This article analyses the evolving roles of the ICS and the relationships of ICS with various stakeholders. It draws on insights from legitimacy theory, Porter’s analysis of the social meaning of objectivity, and the insight from economist Alan Goodhart on the dysfunctional transformation of indicators into targets. It highlights the challenges to ICS evaluators and shows how a spiral of mistrust can both undermine but also cause demand for numbers. It explores whether impact narratives represent an escape from dominant research evaluation metrics and concludes that they do not.     

Emergent curriculum in basic education for the new normality in Peru: orientations proposed from mathematics education

Educational Studies in Mathematics - The Peruvian basic education and its curriculum have been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, certain trends and phenomena have emerged, which shape...     

Self-regulation advantage for high-IQ children: Findings from a research study

Current approaches in intelligence research indicate the need for a more extensive determination of characteristics of children with possible giftedness, not only at an intellectual level, but also at the level of self-regulation and motivation. The present study compares self-regulation efficiency between high-IQ and average-ability children aged 6 to 11 years using a computerized task: The ‘Self-regulation and concentration test for children’ [SRTC, Kuhl, J. & Kraska, K. (1993). Self-regulation: Psychometric properties of a computer-aided instrument. The German Journal of Psychology, 17, 11–24]. Results show that high-IQ children have better self-regulatory abilities than a comparable group of average-ability children. In addition, self-regulation efficiency is related to working memory and action orientation (i.e., self-motivation). It is concluded that the assessment of self-regulation is important both for the research and practice related to children with high intellectual ability.     

The Impact of Globalization on the Ibero-American Virtual University

Globalization is a new worldwide force that is producing deep changes in many sectors of developed and developing societies. These changes may be very positive for those societies that have the elements necessary to channel the strong impacts of globalization. The situation may be less positive for the developing societies that have not evolved such conditions that would allow them to reorient or to limit the negative effects of globalization. The latter situation is typical of many Latin American societies. The best strategy for controlling the force of globalization in Latin America would be the use of distance education and virtual universities that are highly integrated with traditional universities and based upon new informational-telematic paradigms.